Navy Yard Shooting: 1 Suspect ID’d, 1 May Be On The Loose

A suspect who opened fire in Washington D.C.’s Navy Yard early this morning has been taken down and identified as 34-year old Aaron Alexis.

Alexis was recently hired by the Navy as a civilian contractor and used his position to go on a shooting spree in the area with a rifle, an AR-15 assault rifle, and a handgun. He killed 12 people and wounded many others in the chaotic scene, and police believe one other shooter may be at large. Area schools were put on lockdown as a precaution this morning as investigators flooded the scene. Police say they are looking for any information they can find on the killer to gain insight as to why he would do this.

“No piece of information is too small,” said Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the Washington FBI field office. “We are looking to learn everything we can about his recent movements, his contacts and associates.”

President Obama addressed the nation today after the shootings, expressing his own disbelief at the bloodshed at the Naval headquarters, which employs some 3,000 people.

“We still don’t know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” President Barack Obama said earlier Monday afternoon. “So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”

Little is known about Alexis at this time, but the Star-Telegram interviewed his former roommate, who said he can’t believe what occurred today.

“He lived with me three years,” Nutpisit Suthamtewakul said. “I don’t think he’d do this. He has a gun but I don’t think he’s that stupid. He didn’t seem aggressive to me.”